History and aesthetic of computer animation and virtual reality. Notes on Los Angeles in the 1980s and the computer animation community of that time. Miscellaneous commentary on the archaeology of the cold war, as well as notes on the esoteric knowledge as it manifests in popular culture, cinematic theory, the hollow earth, espionage, corruption in civic governance, the aesthetics of conspiracy theories, the failure of the cultural myth and other related topics.

Tuesday, November 6, 2012

Voting Irregularities in Virginia and the Byrd Organization

When the Republican putsch put the Bush
administration into power in this country in 2000, thus ending
democracy and destroying the credibility of the Supreme Court in many
people's eyes, there were some of us who were, and are, adamant that
the issues of voting procedure had gone on far too long and needed to
be dealt with now, completely, fairly across districts, and as
comprehensively as possible.

To a Southerner who is tired of being bashed by ignorant Westerners and Northerners for being from a "racist part of the world", this was a particularly low moment. "Fix the fucking voting machines, ok?"
we thought to ourselves. This has been going on long enough.

But there have always been voting
irregularities in American politics and some elections are more
famous for this than others. Important political dynasties were
created out of creative control of voting procedures, one need only
think of the Daley machine in Chicago to pick one notable example. The South had their political machines as well of course, and the one in
Virginia from the mid 1920's through most of the 1960's was
called the "Byrd Organization" led by former governor and US Senator
Harry Byrd. These were Southern Democrats of the old school.

Governor and US Senator Harry F Byrd

So one day, sometime in the 1930's, my
dad and his first wife went to vote in Virginia Beach, Virginia where
they lived. All polling places have publicaly posted a list of who
is registered to vote in that precinct and whether they have voted
that day or not. This is all to reduce fraud and to increase
confidence that the people who vote are eligible to vote and have
only voted once.

The father of my dad's first wife had
died many years before. But since he was a good democrat, he not
only continued to be registered in his precinct, he had also voted
that day, demonstrating excellent party loyalty.